Love Songs
by Sardonic Kender Smile
Summary: Everybody has a song, and Erk can hear them...whether he wants to or not. Will he find a tune that can harmonize with his own?


_A/N: Woohoo, my first one shot! This story started as a completely random idea that popped into my head one day…egad, how the heck does that keep happening? Anyway …this is probably a bit hard to understand, especially if you don't know much about music (The Band Geek shall inherit the earth), but I hope the tone conveys across…whoops, no pun intended. (sigh). Well…I hope you enjoy it!

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_Love Songs_

_Dedicated to everyone who can actually understand this…rejoice, for you know music!_

Voices were…melodies. Cadenzas. Cadences. Lilting, flying, creating their own special harmonies with the voices of others. Everyone had a special song inside of them, Erk was sure, just as everyone had a different voice.

There was nothing now. The small little song inside of Erk was not playing, for he was not speaking…not that he spoke much anyway. Now the young mage was concentrating. The battle had already started…nothing much to worry about, just average brigands deciding to attack because they were just average desperate thieving axe-men. Erk sighed and listened to his enemies bark orders at each other. Their voices were deep. Bass clef.

Lady Lyn and Lord Eliwood were already up at the front of the battle, fighting away, with Oswin and Lucius running up to join them. Those four would be an interesting fighting team…their voices could make up an entire chorus. Bass, tenor, alto, soprano…

_Although Lucius would doubtless be the soprano, not Lady Lyn_, Erk thought with a quiet chuckle. Ah, there went the mage's studious little song…sometimes it sounded strange even to his own trained ears.

He flipped to a new page in his Fire Tome and scanned the area with his keen eyes. All the bandits were currently busy trying to mob the lords. Erk was alone, quite a few yards from the rest of the party, which he—frankly--did not have a problem with. Still, if the bandits saw him, wide open in the middle of the grassy field, it would not do well to be so far from an ally.

For now, at least, Erk was content. He sat down in the long grass, absentmindedly running his fingers through it, and began to read ahead in his book. Silence, silence…beyond piano, beyond anything "piano" could begin to cover…

"HI, ERK!"

_Forte! _

Erk gave a start and jumped to his feet, his book tumbling to the ground. "Serra, don't scare me like that!" His voice was a jumble of dissonant chords…quite confused.

Serra giggled, notes running up a piccolo. Which scale could it be…the C scale? No, no, it was concert A…A for annoying…

"Serra, what are you doing." A demand, not a question.

"I'm coming to fight with you, of course!" Serra exclaimed. Her voice lilted up at the end…that was her song, always getting higher.

"You can't fight," Erk retorted.

"Yes, but I can heal you! What if you were to get hurt?"

"I have a vulnerary," muttered Erk. It didn't matter to him at this point that a vulnerary might not have been enough to save him…he would choose death to being stuck with Serra. Loud, screechy, high woodwind register Serra…she always ruined his silence, or his quiet little song…

"But I LOVE fighting with you, Erky!" she chirped. Erk winced at the sound of his pet name, to his ears more like a flute player with no experience trying to play above the staff.

"You're so fun to be around! You know so many things, and you can save me from the bad guys! I like you a whole whole lot!"

"That's nice," said Erk. Mm, that was a bit flat. He didn't care to tune it, however.

"What do you mean, 'that's nice'? Ohmigosh! Do you not like me? Really? You don't like me! I can't believe this! YOU'RE SO MEAN!"

Serra ranted on, tears of sorrow or fury—Erk wasn't sure which—filling her eyes. Everything poured out of her mouth in sixteenth notes…thirty-second notes…sixty-fourth notes? HOW was it possible to talk so _fast_? And all during a crescendo! Erk could hardly stand to listen. Finally his ears found mercy—but only because his eyes were too preoccupied with what was in front of him to continue to listen to Serra's song.

A bandit had spotted him and was running towards them. Or…no…the bandit hadn't _seen _them…he had heard Serra, heard her trilling away!

"Serra, quiet," Erk whispered. Piano. "He heard us." Ah, what a tense, foreboding melody. But Serra…was not listening to it.

"Ohmigosh you're as mean as Lord Hector! You will NEVER believe what he said to me the other day! He made me so mad—why, he's so rude he makes Matthew look like Elimine—"

"Hush," pleaded Erk. Mezzo-piano. The bandit was full-on charging them now, his axe raised high. He let out a very loud battle cry, a French horn bellowing…no, that wasn't a French horn, that was a cat drowning in a bucket. A look of disgust crossed Erk's face as he readied his Fire Tome. What a terrible song that bandit had…in both voice and heart.

"A BANDIT!" Serra shrieked. Erk winced. Violins weren't meant to play that high! "A BANDIT, A BANDIT, HE'S HEADING STRAIGHT FOR US! SAVE ME, ERK!"

Fortissimo! So loud! Erk almost dropped his Fire Tome, desperately wanting to cover his hands with his ears.

"Serra, quiet!" he ordered, forte, as loud as his song could get.

The bandit was just a couple of yards away. Erk attacked, watching the flames dance along with the roaring song inside him. The bandit, however, was not finished. As soon as Erk's phrase had ended, he rushed for the young mage and grazed his shoulder with his axe.

Erk gasped in pain—what a beat to miss! Would he get back in tempo?

The bandit raised his axe again, and Erk shut his eyes with a wince. Just perfect, it wasn't enough that he had played his phrase…now he had to repeat it! And repeat he did…the different amount of pain Erk felt—which was quite an increased amount of pain, if anyone cared--told him that the bandit had taken the second ending.

Ack, what was that terrible sound? It was like an entire row of trumpets blaring out as loudly as they could, just screaming…screaming…no, it was the maestro who was screaming…it was Erk…

Serra screaming as well. Fortississimo! Elimine's name, was it possible to get ANY louder? There was too much noise, every instrument was in chaos, nothing was in time, unless it was in 12/17 or some other ridiculous, impossible time…sixteenth notes again, at a tempo of 180. The timpani was going way too slowly…speed up, speed up…the timpani slowed further, the heart slowed further…darkness…

Silence once more.

And then…one quiet note. It was the most pure sound Erk had ever heard, just one clear and perfectly in-tune note. He wanted that perfect sound…he followed it, and with the perfect sound came a perfect blue light…he wanted the sound and the light, he wanted to live…

His eyes fluttered open to see the perfect light fading from a staff that was held by…not Serra.

Priscilla? Yes! Erk was sure that the Hallelujah Chorus was reverberating in his head.

"Your staff," he rasped as the one perfect note faded away with the light from her staff. His song sounded rough, as if none of the instruments had warmed up. "Your staff has a song."

"Erk!" Priscilla's whole face lit up. "You made it! Oh, thank Elimine you're alive!"

Her voice, like Serra's, seemed to have been composed for woodwinds…thankfully, Priscilla's song was within a comfortable register. And piano, at that.

Serra's song was always too loud and obnoxious. It completely overpowered Erk's--which, of course, was an experience he did not enjoy. But Priscilla's song was quiet. Erk found that relaxing.

"Lady Priscilla," he ventured, trying to stay in tune and struggling to sit up once he realized he had collapsed to the grassy ground, "What are you doing over here? You were far away when that bandit attacked me."

Priscilla blushed slightly. "Oh…well, I saw you hurt…I couldn't help but rush to your aide."

"Why me?" Erk asked hesitantly. He almost missed his entrance.

Priscilla didn't answer right away, and Erk counted the measures of rest until she did.

"I…I don't want anything bad to happen to you." Pianissimo. "I like you a lot, you know, Erk." As she spoke that last bit, her voice dropped again—to pianiss_issimo_. All the wonder Erk felt at Serra's immense loudness was rivaled by the wonder he felt for Priscilla's immense softness. He also was in awe that Priscilla seemed to admire him so much…what could he possibly say to her? He had brushed off Serra because her song had clashed with his own…because it was too loud. Priscilla's was very, very quiet…yet Erk felt deep down inside that somehow, that too clashed with his song. Her voice was breathy, her resonance didn't resound. However,Erk was spared from trying to explain that to the redheaded healer.

"ERKY!"

Forte again! Erk mentally cursed the heavenly arranger who made his life's composition such a wreck.

Serra stormed up to Priscilla. "YOU! What do you think you're doing to Erk!"

Priscilla shrank away, a diminuendo in both body and song. "I am healing him."

"WHY? I was right there! I could have healed him!"

"Your staff was broken, Serra…was it not?"

"I was just going for another one!" Serra screeched. "I would have made it to Erk in time, you didn't have to interfere—"

"When an ally is hurt, I take no chances!" Priscilla retorted hotly, though her voice was still at piano.

"You stay away from Erk!" Fortissimo again.

"I…I shan't!" Priscilla declared. Mezzo-piano. Oooh, formidable.

Erk looked back and forth between the bickering girls...one too loud and one too soft. It was true, neither of them could provide a good harmony for his song. He gave a gusty sigh, a flute player blowing through their instrument to warm it up, even though they weren't ready to play yet.

"Um…Erk?"

That voice, Erk realized suddenly, was beautiful. It was mezzo-forte, just the perfect dynamic. And it had nice intonation—an added bonus. Erk simply had to know the composer of the song. He turned around to find…Nino.

"Erk, I saw you go down…are you alright?"

Even if the melody was nervous, like a young student first attempting vibrato, the song had a warm tone. Erk smiled.

"Yes, Nino, I'm fine…thank you for checking up on me. It's always nice to hear a pretty song."

"Song?" She was confused. The bar ended in an incomplete chord.

"Oh…I forgot. People don't think the way I do." Erk got to his feet, holding suspense as he would a fermata. "I hear a lot of…music. It's very hard to explain. Here, if I had a piece of sheet music with me I'm sure I could try and show you…"

Nino blushed. "B-but I don't know how to read music."

The maestro suddenly stopped Erk's song, having found a mistake. Erk's eyes widened. "Y-you don't? You've lived your life without music?"

Nino nodded slowly.

"You truly don't know how to read notes? You don't know any musical terms, or scales, or how to play any instruments?"

Nino shook her head, as if ashamed. Erk smiled gently, feeling his song start back up again.

"Well…I'll suppose I'll have to teach you, then. Do you want to learn?"

"Yes!" Nino exclaimed, her face suddenly alight with joy. Erk left the still squabbling Serra and Priscilla behind, walking off with Nino and humming a whole new tune.

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_A/N: I know Erk doesn't REALLY think like that…but I figured if anyone could be that knowledgeable about one subject (namely, music), it would be Erk. Oh, as for the part about the French-horn-cat-drowning-in-a-bucket…well, if you've ever heard a badly played French horn (trying to do a rift, no less!), that's what it sounds like :-P. Anyway…thanks for reading and humoring my random whims-turned-words :-P._


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